Economic Problems

or

Unemployment in India

Essay No. 01

Unemployment is one of the scourges in the developed countries and one of the greatest problem for the developing countries. Human beings are the means as well as the ends of production. So it should be borne in mind that they should neither be treated as only means nor as only ends. If there is no manpower planning, it is not possible for the country to get rid of frustration and consequently the rebellious tendencies are generated among the masses. For a democratic country unemployment is a blot which cannot be washed off by all the welfare functions which the Government might be performing. It will not be incorrect to say that the very institution of democracy becomes weak if the number of unemployed people abnormally increase in a country. Apart from it as manpower of a country is not fully utilized there are no chances of developing the economy of the country on the appropriate lines. The process of development necessitates the enlargement and the diversification of industries which demands more manpower of various degrees and skills. Similarly education will have to be job-oriented. Since the supply of manpower cannot be decreased so the demand for it should be increased by proper planning in the Public and the Private Sectors. For India unemployment cannot be more disastrous than it can be in other countries.

India is an under-developed country. That is why the nature of unemployment is completely different from what it is available in more advanced countries. It is definitely not the result of the deficiency of effective demand rate it is because the resources and the potentialities have not been fully utilized. In India there is what is called by the economists ‘frictional unemployment and also under-employment or disguised unemployment’. It is the consequence of the shortage of the capital equipment or the other necessary resources. We can find a remedy for this unemployment in expanding the stock of capital assets or units of production. The nature of unemployment in rural India is somewhat different from the urban places. Rural unemployment has two aspects – seasonal and perennial. As agriculture is the most important occupation in the rural areas so a large number of the people remain unemployed for a number of months during the year. The small scale industries could not be properly developed in the rural areas and handicraft has almost died out. Apart from it there is perennial unemployment. About 72 per cent of the working population is engaged in the primary sector and as a result of it there is no increase in the area of cultivation though there has been increase of population engaged in agriculture. The result is that the marginal productivity of increased population is almost zero. The workers are employed but actually they do not get even subsistence wages, and their income is fantastically low. Moreover this unemployment is spread over the entire agricultural population.

The problem of urban unemployment is a complex one. Unemployment can be categorized under two heads: unemployment among industrial labourers and unemployment among the educated middle class. With urbanisation a large number of people from the villages have shifted to the cities but the rate of expansion of industries has not been keeping pace with the shifting of the workers. As far as urban unemployment among the educated is concerned it is more alarming. In fact the education is a sort of learning, writing and reading with very little emphasis on technical education. Recently there has been development of technical education but the fields are so limited in number that there seems to be no diversification. As a result of it there are a very large number of the unemployed educated people in India. Unemployment is dangerous; Sadler Commission pointed out “the existence and the steady increase of a sort of intellectual proletariats not without reasonable grievances forms a menace to a good Government especially in a country where…. The small educated classes are vocal.”

Economics have discovered various causes of the unemployment in India. According to Dantawala Committee, “in and economy like this there is very little open or outright unemployment but there would be considerable seasonal unemployment and or under-employment.” This is somewhat eccentric type of view which the Committee has given because unemployment is not the result of the factors which Committee keeps in mind. Despite the best efforts, i.e., the creation of Directorate General of Employment and Training as well as Employment Exchanges it has not been possible to help the educated and others to get suitable employment. Even the Five Year Plans have failed to achieve the objective and with every successive plan the percentage of unemployment has all the time increased. At the end of the First Plan the unemployment was 2.9% but at the end of the Fifth Plan it rose to 5.6%. It has been estimated by the Bhagwati Committee that the unemployment will go on increasing every year till effective steps are taken. In fact the exploitation of the resources and providing the employment opportunities to the job seekers have not been properly undertaken by the Government. Similarly studies made by the N.S.S. show that under-employment has also been on the increase. Similar is the case with the disguised unemployment. The economists have not taken up the empirical studies about the magnitude of this type of unemployment so far. Some initial estimates show that in India nearly seventeen percent of the labour suffers from this type of unemployment.

One of the most important causes of unemployment in India is the growth of population. Above 4 million people enter the labour market every year. Rural unemployment is on the increase because there is a great pressure of population on the land and cultivation is still backward. Moreover handicrafts have declined in the villages and the villagers have no alternative occupation in the rural areas. Urban unemployment is because of various other reasons. Educated unemployment is because of the increasing turn out of the school, colleges and universities. The mass production of educated people has created a gap between employment opportunities and the job seekers. The educational system is still producing clerks and very little emphasis is laid upon specialisation or technical training. Moreover, the industrial production due to foreign exchange difficulties, famine conditions and rising prices has declined appreciably. Consequently a large number of the labourers cannot be absorbed. Apart from it there is a greater tendency on the part of the younger generation to take up white collared jobs instead of working with their hands. Hence the employment opportunities have decreased a lot.

Five Years Plans’ objective was that more employment opportunities should be created. They recognised that providing employment is not just a welfare measure. It is rather a necessary part of the strategy of development in the poor countries. It has generally been assumed that economic growth leads to increase in production and increase in employment but some of the statistics released by the I.L.O. falsify this fact. We may say that particularly in the developed countries there is no correlation between economic growth and employment but in the developing countries there might be some relation because of technological changes. We will have to take some measures which are completely different in the case of urban and rural sectors. No doubt rural electrification, road construction, house building, irrigation works and small scale industries may help to reduce the rural unemployment yet some other positive steps will have to be taken.

Professor Dandekar in one of his studies, “Problems of Poverty in India” has argued that urban poverty is an overflow of rural poverty and he thinks that if there is rural development then urban unemployment can be finished. Mr. Bhagwati, the Chairman of the Committee, set up by the Central Government, has given his own suggestions for combating unemployment. According to the Committee there should be rural electrification, housing, road building and minor irrigation works which may provide employment to a large number of people. The Committee has given the greatest importance to irrigation and rural electrification. In order to create employment in the industrial field the Committee feels that it is essential that under-utilisation of installed capacity should be reduced.

It has been seen that every Five Year Plan has increased the number of the unemployed. So some concrete steps should be taken to eradicate this evil from our country. Firstly, there should be a change in the pattern of investment. At this time we have been able to build a reasonable infrastructure and industrial base so now the investment should be in those industries where the employment opportunities are greater. This policy will foster social stability. Moreover small enterprises as against large enterprises should be encouraged. This policy will definitely increase employment opportunities. Apart from it, the Government will have to take steps to discourage the introduction of automation at least for some years because this will decrease the employment opportunities. The new growth centres in the small towns and rural areas must be encouraged. By establishing the small industrial complexes greater employment opportunities can be provided. The most important change that the Government should bring is with regard to education. Till the very nature of educational system in India is not changed we cannot decrease pressure upon office based jobs. In fact the Gandhian concept of education system based on vocational training should be emphasized. Even the National Labour Commission suggested that the educational system should conform to the demands of high level manpower. Clearly the problem of unemployment in India is mostly the result of lopsided industrial development. If the proper emphasis is laid and priorities are fixed it is not difficult to eradicate unemployment.

Essay No. 02

Unemployment in India

Unemployment is one of the top notch issues in India. India is facing plethora of economic issues, unemployment is one of the major issue behind the unsuccessful economy of India. Unemployment means when a person is well educated and willing to do work at prescribed wage rates but did not get any work. There are too much of the India’s population with graduates, post graduates and even doctorates, but they didn’t get any work. In some cases there is under employment, which means candidates are working below their caliber. The human resource of India is wandering free without any job or work in hand. This issue of unemployment further gave birth to so many big issues like poverty, crime, social stress and tension, and many more. The rate of unemployment is increasing day by day between different age groups. The higher rate of unemployment is seen in the 15-29 age groups which is 3.8 %. According to the estimates of international labor organization the chronic problem of unemployment is being increasing from past years. The human resource of India is idle and committing crimes due to social unrest.

Reasons behind Unemployment

Rising population is another big issue behind the unemployment. The population of India is spreading like a wild fire. Various prevention measures are introduced by the government but still the population is on leap and bounds. We can say that the root cause behind unemployment id increasing population. The employment opportunities created by government falls less than the applicants. In many cases on daily bases we can see the generally the applicants for a particular job are much more than required. The competition among the job struggler class is increasing day by day and it is crystal clear that coming generation will obviously face more difficult situation if population is not checked.

• Lack of technical skills and proper education criteria is also a reason behind unemployment. Due to privatization so many outsourcing companies are there for reaping the profits from India. But the poor India is not able to provide skilled personnel to outsourcing companies. There is lack of skills in the personnel of India. The education system is not developed yet. The government schools and colleges will not provide technical education. Furthermore, the private institutions provide advanced skills which are very far from the common people due the finance point of view. So in India only rich people are getting richer and poor are getting poorer day by day.
• Indian employers provide low wages to the employees.
• Lack of new job opportunities is surely adding more obstacles in growth of our economy. According to the recent surveys the government job opportunities are decreasing day by day and on the other hand population is increasing day by day .so our economy is on razor’s edge between unemployment and population paradox.
• Increasing advanced technology in working fields cleared out the manual labor. In previous times thousands of the workers were being called for work in industries or factories but now this work of thousand people is substituted with machines. The reason behind this substitution is cheap and efficient work with in no time. No doubt, machine and technical work is done with in no time but the substituted employees are still facing problems of un employment throughout the India.
• The buzzword corruption is main force behind this problem. Both the government sector and private sector are employing people on bribe basis. The qualification and urge are being ignored. 

Burning Issues Caused Due to Unemployment

Unemployment is the root cause of many more problems which are equally worse as unemployment for our economy. The foremost problem is poverty which is a challenging concept for the government. Due to the lack job and work consumption is decreasing and economic activities in our country are becoming negligible. Youngsters are committing suicides due to mental imbalances from lack of work. Family and economic pressure of becoming independent may cause social unrest. The manpower of India is now drug addict .crime rates are increasing day by day. Looting in big cities is getting common. Frustrated section of unemployed and poor people takes these illegal steps only foe their food and shelter.

Essay No. 03

Unemployment in India

Unemployment is a serious malady in India. With l I its teaming millions of educated, literates and illiterates in India the problem of unemployment is one of magnum size and defies any solutions. 

In reality, my view is that, for the last fifty-two years of India’s independence this problem has continued to magnify instead of reaching some solution. To day it has reached an alarming proportion and it seems that, no amount of work in this sphere is enough to sort out this magnum problem. I personally feel that the cause of it all is basically, poor planning or if I may say so no planning at all. There has been a mushroom growth of educational institutions and also education facilities for higher education. With the growth in higher education through the years, what India has achieved is the production of unemployable youth at these colleges and universities. When these thousands of young men and women come out of universities with their degrees, their desires have grown sky high, expectations for good jobs highly imaginative while they in reality are mostly good for nothing. With this paradox of a reality where can the problem meet a solution? This is what has been happening for the last few decades, with each decade adding to the millions of educated unemployed. This is the cumulative result of an unplanned education policy of the Governments in the States and the Centre, for the last fifty years. 

In this scenario thus, the educated are left unemployed after education and the uneducated are in any case not fit for any employment of any worth. It is in this way of expansion of education in a haphazard and unplanned way that, the Herculean task of helping the unemployed to get employment has arisen. However, after fifty years of unplanned education, in the last five or six years the defective output of our education has been noticed by people who matter. Instead of increasing the numbers of colleges and universities, more stress is now being laid to opening of vocational centres for the youth passing out of schools. If this was the direction of education from the very beginning, we would not have faced this acute problem of unemployment of both educated and the uneducated. Every individual according to his / her desire and capacity could have grown into a specific profession. We would then have had the twin advantage of providing employment and producing professionals of all hues. 

Now that there is more stress on literacy’ on the one hand and vocation on the other it can be expected that, this two pronged attack on the problem of unemployment may pay dividends, though it will take time to show. The damage done to education and all that is linked with education cannot be repaired within the blinking of an eye.